Books Tell You Why. All About Collecting Rare Books (119)

A Brief History of Banned Books in America

By Matt Reimann. Dec 26, 2015. 9:00 AM.

Topics: American Literature, History, Modern First Editions

Books encourage people to ask questions. They equip people to understand lives different from their own. They encourage people to seek the truth, to reject what is false and convenient. It is no surprise reading is a powerful thing. For this reason, paranoid governments have always been suspicious of what people might be learning from between the covers of a book. Men might become corrupted. Women might become unchaste. So censors have defamed and condemned them, burned them and banned them—but there will always be people who believe books to be worth fighting for.

Five Little-Known Facts About Queen of Suspense, Mary Higgins Clark

By Adrienne Rivera. Dec 24, 2015. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Mystery, Suspense & Crime

Mary Higgins Clark's name is now synonymous with the suspense genre. She's penned 35 suspense novels on her own, and she's worked in collaboration with friends and family on several more. Her books, including favorites like Before I Say Goodbye and He Sees You When You're Sleeping, are bestsellers. In fact, her first suspense novel, Where Are The Children? (1975) —which was also made into a feature film —is in its 75th edition. So, we know her by her work, but what are some little-known facts about the reigning Queen of Suspense?

Welcome to Beantown: A Literary Tour of Boston

By Nick Ostdick. Dec 23, 2015. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Legendary Authors, Literature, Literary travel

The City on a Hill. The Cradle of Liberty. Beantown.

No matter how you refer to it, there’s no doubting Boston’s place in the landscape of American culture and history. A city defined by its revolutionary spirit, ferocious attachment to its sports teams, and stock of hearty, stiff-lipped citizens, Boston has also served as a launching pad and home for some of the world’s finest literary minds.

The First Day of Winter: Five Frosty Reads for a Celebration of Snow

By Connie Diamond. Dec 22, 2015. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Children's Books, Literature

Snow. Day. Are there two words in the English language that, when strung together, elicit more joy in the heart of a child? Back in the day, news of a snow day was carried over a staticky radio. Hopeful kids listened for their school’s name in the cancellation list while tucked in bed or sitting in a warm kitchen that smelled of toast and freshly brewed coffee. When it made its alphabetical appearance, a typically quiet and sleepy morning house would be transformed into a household filled with excitement as children threw off their blankets and threw on their winter coats and mittens. Here are a few books that capture the miracle of snow and the magic of a day spent celebrating it.

Three Victorian Ghost Stories for a Spooky Christmas

By Nick Ostdick. Dec 21, 2015. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Legendary Authors, Christmas Books

Imagine Christmas Eve: Snow sifts down from the night sky, the fireplace glows red and crackles with warmth, and a stately looking family gathers in the living room with food and drink to regale each other with tales of the undead coming to life and psychologically taunting characters until they are driven to madness from fear. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night? Yes indeed. Sweet dreams, little ones.

For as odd as this scene might sound, the telling of ghost stories on the night before Christmas was and is a common tradition in England and throughout much of Europe.

How Do Famous Authors Get Their Start?

By Matt Reimann. Dec 20, 2015. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Legendary Authors, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens

There’s no clear-cut way to become a writer. A writer’s start, however, is almost always a small one. It takes a considerable amount of time to cultivate the talent that will amass attention, better pay, praise and prestige. That is, if those are the kind of things you’re into. But the road to artistic glory is necessarily a humble one. Few blossoming writers are in a position to turn down opportunities that pay and reach readers. And many times, a writer will settle for just the latter. In the end, these less glamorous ventures and gigs can prove essential to both the professional and artistic growth of the author. Let's explore how the following famous authors got their start.

Announcing a New Scholarship for Rare Book School

By Andrea Koczela. Dec 19, 2015. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Libraries & Special Collections, Book News

Here at Books Tell You Why, we're excited to announce a new scholarship for Rare Book School! Beginning in 2016, we will send one winner per year to a RBS course of his or her choosing.

Hector Hugh Munro: The Strange Ideology of Saki

By Matt Reimann. Dec 18, 2015. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Literature, Modern First Editions

Saki was the pseudonym of short story writer Hector Hugh Munro. He adopted the name in 1900, and it's believed to have been taken from a character from the works of the Persian poet, Omar Khayyam. Most famous for his short stories, Saki also wrote novels and many articles of journalism. He remains an important figure in the tradition of modern English writers, although his politics and ideas may seem somewhat distant to us today.

More Than Just A Beer in the Glass: An Interview with Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver

By Nick Ostdick. Dec 17, 2015. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Literature, Interviews

When you think of a brewer, you don’t normally associate him or her with a sparkling literary career. But when you think of a brewer, you may not think of Brooklyn Brewery's brewmaster and author Garrett Oliver either.

For Oliver, beer is something more than a fizzy, alcoholic beverage we pull from the back of the fridge after a hard day at the office, or something we guzzle on Sunday afternoons while watching our team battle it out against a rival opponent. Beer is his life’s work and the subject of numerous essays, articles, and two highly-regarded books on the history and styles of beer, The Brewmaster’s Table, in 2003, as well as the uber-comprehensive, encyclopedic The Oxford Companion to Beer in 2011.

Beatrix Potter: A Pioneer in Self-Publishing

By Adrienne Rivera. Dec 16, 2015. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Literature, Book Making

When one thinks of Beatrix Potter and her literary legacy—her delicate illustrations and charming stories that have delighted children and parents alike for over one hundred years—one does not necessarily think also of writers like E.L. James, John Grisham, or Edgar Allen Poe. But these writers, though they differ greatly in genre and in time, all have something in common with the celebrated naturalist and storyteller. Each of these writers, like Potter herself, began their literary careers by self-publishing. From her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, to Wag-by-Wall, the last of her stories published in her lifetime, Potter owes her considerable success to her own self-publishing efforts.